


Homecoming

by discordiansamba



Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Gen, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-23
Updated: 2016-02-23
Packaged: 2018-05-22 18:00:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,759
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6089326
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/discordiansamba/pseuds/discordiansamba
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It was the first time in three weeks that he would be coming home from the hospital, but somehow he didn't seem all that excited about it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Homecoming

Jazz's thoughts were so consumed with other things that she barely noticed how rushed the lady at the reception desk seemed to be to release her younger brother out of the hospital to her. She would have thought there would have been a bit more resistance to the idea of his sixteen year old older sister being the one to pick him up, rather than his parents.

It had been three weeks since he had been admitted into the hospital, after an accident with one of her parent's inventions. Her eyes narrowed a little just thinking about it- she had always been worried that something like this was going to happen one day, given the dangerous and volatile nature of her parent's equipment and inventions alike. The fear that something would happen had begun to wane a little as Danny exited childhood and became a teenager, and she had always thought he would have more common sense than to go snooping around his parent's inventions.

Apparently not.

Realistically, Jazz wasn't sure who she was the more upset with in this scenario. Her parents? Surely they could have secured their stupid "ghost portal" a little better than they had, even if they'd decided it wasn't working. How careless was her father, to place a on/off switch inside of the portal, and to furthermore leave the machine plugged in while they went out to wash away the taste of disappointment from it's failure?

Danny? Surely a fourteen year old boy should know better than to go walking into anything their parents had made. He had plenty of personal experience with how dangerous most of the stuff her parents invented was, so why didn't he know any better?

What about his two best friends, Sam and Tucker? According to the story Sam had told her, she had suggested to Danny that he should look inside in the first place. They had spent enough time at Fenton Works to know how dangerous the stuff her parents invented was too, and yet they chose to ignore this. Tucker might have not suggested it himself, but he sure didn't do anything to keep Danny from walking into the blasted thing and turning it on while he was still inside.

Eventually most of her ire had fallen onto her parents. Sam and Tucker had already been through enough, and no doubt were already blaming themselves for Danny's hospitalization. It was obvious in the guilty looks that flashed through their eyes whenever they heard that his hospital stay was being extended, the way they couldn't quite meet the eyes of Jazz and her parents. They had handled themselves quite well in the end, Sam performing some impressive first aid while Tucker had called for an ambulance, properly following procedure. She really couldn't stay mad at them in the end.

Of course, the same could be said for her baby brother. Surprisingly for someone who had been electrocuted, he managed to come out of the portal accident fairly well- at least, superficially he had. Along with leaving a very nasty scar down the middle of his torso, his body temperature had dropped drastically. 

That was part of why they had kept him in the hospital so long, due to concerns about his abnormally low body temperature. They wanted to keep him under observation and hope that he would warm up. Although he did, a little, Danny never managed to get into the zone that the doctors had wanted. Eventually after determining that there seemed to be no detrimental effects caused by his adjusted body temperature, they had finally decided to release him.

"Then, your brother will be right down in a few moments." Jazz broke out of her thoughts at the sound of the receptionist's voice, who gave her a nervous, yet slightly relieved smile. "Why don't you just take a seat?"

"Yes, thank you." Jazz said, inclining her head. She found an empty bench and sat down, placing her hands over her knees. Glancing aimlessly around the hospital, she couldn't help but feel glad that this was the last time she was going to come here for awhile. There was something about hospitals that made her nervous, and for some reason the air in this one seemed heavier than usual. There was a tension in the air that was nearly visible, especially amongst the members of the staff. They all seemed worn out, harried for reasons that she couldn't quite place.

"It's a bit chilly." Jazz noted to herself, rubbing her arms a little. "I wonder if their air conditioner is broken." She wondered aloud, before glancing up, a bright smile dawning on her face. "Danny!" She called out, getting right to her feet and nearly pouncing on the boy, bringing him into a tight hug. He seemed to wince and shiver a little at the contact, and she flushed, stepping back a little.

"Sorry. I got a little excited." Jazz laughed a bit, putting a light hand on his shoulder. She couldn't help but notice he was still pretty cold, but chose to make no mention of it. Today was a happy day, after all, she wasn't going to ruin it by bringing up any concerns that she might have. At least she had gone out with her mother the other day to buy Danny a new space heater for his room, thinking that might help him.

"It's okay." Danny gave her a faint smile, and she didn't miss the tired bags underneath his eyes. Sleep had been eluding him lately, and although his color was looking a bit better, he was still pretty pale. Somehow he looked fragile in her eyes, and suddenly she couldn't help but wonder if it was really a good idea to let him out of the hospital yet. 

"Where's mom and dad?" He asked, blue eyes glancing around- they seemed a bit strange, dimmer than usual, as if the life had been sucked out of them. Well, spending three weeks bed bound in a hospital would do that to a person, she guessed. Jazz did catch the twinge of worry in her brother's voice, remembering that tensions had been a bit tight between him and their parents since the accident.

"Cleaning up." Jazz sighed, shaking her head. "Well, I guess it might spoil it, but it's probably better that you be prepared for it anyways. They were planning on throwing you a surprise party for your recovery-"

"...and dad did something that destroyed it all." Danny finished for her, his smile growing a little.

"Pretty much." She grinned, ruffling his hair, laughing a little as he tried to bat away her hand. "Well, are you ready to get out of here, little bro?"

"You have no idea." Danny said, shaking his head, looking up at her. It was true, he did look pretty eager to leave- but she couldn't help but notice that at the same time, he seemed rather apprehensive. "I think the staff is pretty tired of me too." He joked, although his smile faltered a little as he spoke.

"Now that you mention it, I did get that impression from them. Did you do something? I thought you had outgrown your love of pranks." Jazz teased, though she could clearly see that something was wrong. It was in her brother's eyes, the way he carried himself, the way she almost felt the receptionist's eyes boring into her back, as if telling them to hurry up and leave already.

"Something like that." Danny laughed a little, though he didn't meet her eyes. "You get a bit bored, being cooped up all day."

"Well, I can understand that." Jazz nodded her head, before quickly taking Danny's bag from him. "I'll carry that for you. You probably still feel a little weak, especially if you haven't been getting that much sleep. How are the nightmares lately?" She asked him, placing a hand on his back. She didn't allow herself to flinch because of how cold he was, knowing that her brother was in a sensitive place already.

"Getting better." Danny assured her, yawning a little as he said it. The lights overhead flickered a little, causing him to flinch, before putting on another small smile. "I'm sure I'll get over them in time."

"That's good to hear." Jazz nodded her head, heading for the door. "You know you can always talk to me about whatever you like, Danny." She told him, glancing back at him- and for a moment, she could see him hesitate, seemingly considering something- but then he shook his head, smiling up at her with that fake expression again. Couldn't he tell that she could see through it? It was true that other people might not be able to, but Jazz could tell.

It was painful to look at.

"I'll keep that in mind." Danny told her. "At least I got out in time so that I won't miss any school."

"Ah, that's right." Jazz frowned a little. "You start high school this year, don't you? We could still talk to the school so you can take some time off. You don't have to rush into it if you don't feel up to it. I mean, no offense Danny, but you still look pretty weak."

"Frankly I'd rather have some normalcy in my life for a change. I could really use some." Danny gave her a weak laugh, as she held open the door for him, letting him walk outside. Dimly, Jazz noted that it didn't even warm up that much once they had left the hospital, heading outside into what was supposed to be the warm summer heat.

"Well, I won't argue with you. After all, you know your body best." Jazz sighed, directing him towards where she had parked the car. "But we'll let the teachers know about your accident, if mom hasn't done so already. She's been a bit scatterbrained since then, running around all over the place."

"Sounds like she's been pretty busy. How are they doing?" Danny asked, once again not facing her. His bangs shadowed his eyes, concealing them from view, as if he didn't want his expression to be read. Not one he could fake, then.

"They're worried about you." Jazz told him, placing a hand on his shoulder. "And they feel pretty guilty. After all, it was their portal, and their own carelessness that let this happen in the first place. But don't worry, that's all it is. You know how they are."

"Yeah." Danny nodded his head, taking in and letting out a deep breath. They hadn't visited him much in the hospital, for various reasons. Although the portal had been activated, apparently it's energy output wasn't stable yet, resulting in them having to monitor it nearly around the clock. Apparently leaving it to run unchecked could result in dire consequences, something to the tune of the entire house being leveled. It was only within the last week that it had finally calmed down to a steady output, and had allowed them both to take a break. Frankly she had been a bit worried that one or both of them would work themselves so hard that they would end up in the hospital as well.

"They're going to be very happy to have you home, Danny." She gave his shoulder a light squeeze, before reaching into her pocket for her car keys. "We'll work out everything else later. But today you should just relax and take everything easy. After all, it's your homecoming party, and the one thing mom did manage to save was one of her famous chocolate pies."

"Ah. I'll look forward to that." Danny said, giving her a small smile. 

More fake excitement, she noted, biting down on her tongue. She wanted to say something, she wanted to say something so badly and confront him on the matter right now. There was something that he wasn't telling her, wasn't telling anyone, and this frustrated her to no end. She didn't expect Danny to be an open book to her, she was, after all, his older sister, but she expected him to be a little more open about things that were serious- as whatever was plaguing him most likely was. But now wasn't the time, today was a day to celebrate his release from the hospital. A day for Danny to relax, to destress himself a little.

It could wait until tomorrow, she thought to herself, turning the key to start up the car. The motor whirred to life, before quickly sputtering and dying, causing Jazz to grumble. "Oh come on, this car isn't that old yet." She mumbled to herself, trying again to start it up and getting a very similar response.

"Sorry." Danny said, blue eyes hiding themselves behind his hair again.

"Don't worry about it, it's not your fault." Jazz said, not sparing him a glance as she tried to get it to go again, missing him flinch again. "I guess it's getting to that age where it becomes a little temperamental. Ah, there we go!" She said, leaning back a little as she heard the engine roar to life. "That's more like it. Then, let's get back home, shall we? Everyone's waiting for you. And Danny?"

"Yeah?" He glanced up at her, far too dull blue eyes briefly meeting with hers, before they flickered away.

"Don't worry." She smiled at him, reaching over to ruffle his hair once more. "Everything will be just fine."

"Yeah, you're probably right." Danny nodded his head, putting on his best smile for again, even as his right hand gripped his left wrist tight, anxiety welling up inside of him. He knew that Jazz could see right through him, could tell that something was wrong with him- but there was no way that he could tell her about any of this. After all, Jazz was the skeptic of the family, the one who had never believed that ghosts existed in the first place, the one who was horribly embarrassed by her parents occupation. Jazz, who was firmly grounded in reality, and didn't have time for any supernatural nonsense. Jazz, who didn't believe anything that she hadn't already seen with her own eyes, and even then would often remain skeptical until she had exhausted every scientific option to explain it.

There was no way that she would ever believe that he had become half-ghost, or whatever exactly it was that he had been turned into. Maybe that was for the best, though. He knew why the nurses and doctors were all too happy to see him go, he knew it was because they all were fully aware that something was inhuman about him. They felt the chill that he brought with him wherever he went, and the otherworldly aura that clung to him, causing those around him to flinch back in fear.

Those who believed at least. Although Danny had been distancing himself from his sister ever since he had become a teenager, he almost felt reassured to have her around now. There was something relaxing being in the presence of someone who didn't feel that creepy aura even a little. But at the thought of going home to finally see his parents for more than just the allotted one hour of visitor's time that had been given to each group coming to see him, he couldn't help but feel a growing dread pile up inside him, forming a knot in his stomach.

Because his parents did believe. Of course they did, after all, they were ghost hunters.

And that was why he was so worried.

No matter how he tried to think otherwise, no matter how much Sam and Tucker reassured him, he couldn't help but feel that this wouldn't end well. That accident had fundamentally changed him, turned him into something that wasn't human anymore, something that probably didn't belong in this world. There was no way his parents were going to miss that, especially not when combined with the fact that he and supernatural occurrences seemed to go hand in hand now.

He didn't want to go home.

"I am." Jazz's voice snapped him out of his thoughts, as she reached over, placing a hand over his, giving him a broad smile. "Everything is going to be just fine."

Danny wordlessly nodded in agreement, as his sister turned to concentrate on getting out of the parking lot. Maybe if he started thinking things would turn out alright, he could really convince himself of that.


End file.
